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Jewish World Review Feb. 16, 2009 / 22 Shevat 5769 Dems undercut aid for U.S. workers By John Kass
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
With all the hoopla over greasy pork being stuffed into President Barack Obama's near trillion-dollar spending bill, it's what is being cut out that's receiving too little attention.
And once Americans realize it, they won't be happy.
What's been quietly stripped is a provision that would have required any businesses receiving federal stimulus cash to use an easy computer program called E-Verify to make sure that the jobs they generate go to American citizens or documented foreign workers, not illegal immigrants.
Democrats in the House voted for the E-Verify component. But when the great porkulus package reached the Senate, Democrats there dropped it.
Of all the garbage in the bill, there's been little if any discussion about E-Verify. It's so simple that the clarity of it all must insult those nuanced Beltway sensibilities. So what am I supposed to do with that half a loaf of uneaten Hopium in my desk drawer?
"It's another example of why people distrust Congress," said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., who had pushed for an amendment to the stimulus package mandating that E-Verify be used to certify job applicants.
We spoke over the phone Tuesday minutes after the Senate narrowly passed its version of the stimulus package, 61-37.
I asked Sessions how Americans will react, once they figure it out.
"I think the American people will be furious when they find out about this. The Congress tells them one thing, and then in the dead of night, the Senate maneuvers around and does another," Sessions said. "Those who know are already not happy about it. They see this as one more duplicitous act."
E-Verify, offered free to all employers since 2004 as a way to combat illegal immigration, allows employers to determine the legal work status of potential employees by searching their names and Social Security numbers along with other databases.
It's cheap to operate, and more than 96 percent of job applicants are cleared by the program within minutes. This makes it almost impossible for employers to skirt the system and hire cheap, illegal labor.
But the House Democrats approved it and Senate Democrats peeled it away, a version of the old political con game played out in Washington to trick the suckers back home.
"They get to tell their constituents, 'See, I voted for it.' But they never really wanted it in the first place," Sessions said.
Meanwhile, Obama campaigns for the bill, warning that without his stimulus package, we'll suffer economic catastrophe. Whatever happened to choosing hope over fear?
"I can tell you that failure to act, doing nothing, is not an option. You didn't send me to Washington to do nothing. So, we had a good debate. That's part of what democracy is about. But the time for talk is over," the president told a highly stimulated crowd Tuesday in Fort Myers, Fla.
Translation: Debate? What debate? Let's spend it now, and we'll worry about the details later.
Americans understand their politicians. They know that one politician's porkulus is another politician's critically important condom distribution program. Being politicians, they can't help but accuse the other side of not caring about the American worker.
But that's who the E-Verify provision was supposed to protect. Not the construction boss or the slaughterhouse manager who wants to pay as little as possible for labor.
"The chicken processors and some of the chambers of commerce are terrified of E-Verify," Sessions said. "They don't want it made the law of the land. It should become standard operating procedure for every business."
It should be the law of the land. The reason it's not tells you more about American politics - and the Democrats' courtship of Latino voters - than any speech about hope.
This isn't about denying legal immigrants work, whether they hail from Iceland or Mexico. It's about ensuring that the federal system is legit, not full of holes ripe for corruption and big-city political patronage.
Sessions said he'll keep squawking to include the E-Verify provision in the final bill that is sent to the president. And other politicians will no doubt fight for what they deem important in the bill, whether it's that $400 million to prevent sexually transmitted diseases or that $246 million tax break for Hollywood producers.
Whether safe sex and Hollywood help stimulate the economy is something I'll leave to politicians. But what about American workers and American taxpayers?
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John Kass is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune. Comments by clicking here.
© 2008, Chicago Tribune. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. |
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